I think the most interesting thing about him is that, despite all his work in taming electricity, he disagreed with the existence of electrons (or really any subatomic particles).
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tCcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA171&re...
The article immediately distinguishes between philosophy and science while you appear to be, for some reason, conflating them:
Atomism [a privative and temnein to cut, i.e. indivisible] is the system of those who hold that all bodies are composed of minute, indivisible particles of matter called atoms. We must distinguish between
1) atomism as a philosophy and
2) atomism as a theory of science.
And I mentioned "atomism as a theory of science" under the instrumentalism part of my comment. In Catholic Theology, philosophy always means "ontological interpretation". That section you quoted is saying that Catholics are allowed to believe in atomism as an instrumental model, but not as the ultimate interpretation of how the Universe works.
That's a rather bold claim. It implies that Catholic theologians are, among other things, uninterested in ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology, just to name a few other subjects of interest to philosophers. I'm frankly baffled that you would reach such a conclusion, but OK.
> Catholics are allowed to believe in atomism as an instrumental model, but not as the ultimate interpretation of how the Universe works
Well to be Catholic you have to believe in an ultimate eternal God, so ultimately we believe that everything in the universe is both created and sustained by Him and everything observable is some kind of instrumentality, be it evolution, quantum electrodynamics, or anything else. Nevertheless that doesn't in any pragmatic way restrict one's ability to form scientific hypotheses or theories. Indeed it's arguably closer to the Newtonian ideal of focusing on accurate description of phenomena.
Where can I learn more about instrumentality (besides Neon Genesis Evangelion)?
In short, instrumentality deals with the how of God achieving His will. God, the incarnation excepted, is pure spirit, so in order to achieve His will materially He created and then used physical laws, among other things. The Big Bang is the greatest billiard break in cosmic history. So, for the well-formed Catholic, the possibility and apparent likelihood that God achieved the creation of Man using, among other instruments, evolution from lower life forms, isn't at all a problem.
Tesla also died 80 years ago.
The Catholic encyclopedia was finished in 1912, tesla was 56 at the time.